Ft. Huachuca, AZ

Yesterday we took a ride to Ft. Huachuca to get Kathy's ID card renewed. We had been here several years ago, but didn't explore at all. This is a LARGE base. We found the ID card office and then went looking for the Post Exchange (retail store). After a few wrong turns, we finally got there and checked it out. Then off to the Commissary. We never get close to one without feeling the need to buy some groceries.
This post was established in the 1880's as a cavalry post and there are museums with some of the original buildings. We will visit another time to see them and report on them.
Then it was off to Sierra Vista and a trip to the Mall there and the western clothing store. My western shirts don't fit any more and we are having a hoe-down as the kick-off entertainment next week. We spent an entire summer in Rapid City without going to the Mall there. We've been here only a few weeks and there we were in the Mall. Fortunately, we escaped without too much financial damage. I hope there wont be too much dust in the air next time we go that way, as the scenery is awesome. I'll take the camera next time and post some pictures here.

Helldorado Days

Yesterday we took a trip to Tombstone, AZ 20 miles south of Benson. In 1929, the town was dying with the playing out of the silver mines and the county seat was about to be moved. The city fathers came up with a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the town to raise awareness of Tombstone. This came to be known as Helldorado days.

Many folks dress in period costume and there are many shops selling period clothing and accessories, including guns. This is one of the rental shops in town and we saw lots of dance hall girls around town.


The famous OK Corral where the Earps and Doc Holiday shot it out with the Clantons and the McLowerys. Gunfights go on all day long here.

The equally famous Birdcage Theatre. Part gambling hall, part bar, and part bordello, it is preserved in its original state with all the original furnishings, complete with numerous bullet holes.


A couple of soiled doves perhaps?


Lots of folks dressed in 1880's clothes.


There were several different coaches available to haul you around town.


There was even a miner.

We had a lot of fun in Tombstone, and we will go back when the town is a little less crowded to visit some of the historic buildings including the inside of the Birdcage.
We continued to head south leaving Tombstone and heading to Bisbee, a major copper mining center with many original and restored buildings. We will go back to Bisbee and take pictures for a future blog post.

Butterfield RV Resort

Better late than never. We have been here 10 days already and busy the whole time. Work, shopping, settling in, excuses, excuses. The park is pretty empty now, but the first snowbirds will arrive 1 Nov., about 30 of them. All activities start in Nov.

Well here we are in sight 8 in the workamper row. I haven't put up everything yet, but I'm almost there.

This is my work for the winter, keeping the pool and spa clean and warm. Some of my favorite work.

This is the first park we have been in with an observatory. Astronomy shows nightly at 7:30 PM.

For the golfers, there are these two driving cages and a putting green.

Here's your friendly storekeeper. She's a beauty!


Here are two views of the clubhouse and event kitchen.

There is another building next door with a large room and another kitchen for dances and musical events.
We are so happy to be here at this beautiful park. There are 173 RV spaces with several park models available for monthly rental. We are located in the center of town right behind the Safeway and Ace Hardware stores. Couldn't get much handier.

We have arrived!

After 1442 miles and 190 gallons of diesel, we have arrived in Benson, AZ at the Butterfield RV Park. We will workamp here for the winter. Kathy will be at either the front desk or the store and I will be working the swimming pool. We actually got here yesterday after a stop at the Dream Catcher Escapee Park in Deming, AZ. That had been over 310 miles and we were tired. Yesterday's run was an easy, flat 170 miles. For the entire trip we averaged 7.7 mpg on the motorhome, not bad considering we had some serious hills to climb in New Mexico. We will start our jobs tomorrow and then we will get a better handle on what there is to do in this area. We know there is a lot and we are constantly hearing about more cool stuff to see. I will get better about taking the camera and do a better job reporting.

Haven't seen even one alien

Here we are in Roswell, NM. We had an easy run down here from Amarillo with good roads most of the way and all 4 lane!! We will only stay here to nite and get going early for a 240 mile run over the mountainous Apache reservation by Riudoso, NM on down to I 10 and on to Deming for a night at the Escapee park there. Next day we have an easy day in to Benson, AZ. We checked out the Visitor Center and Civic Center Museum today. I forgot to take the camera. Too bad because they had a recreation of Robert Goddard's workshop where he manufactured the earliest rockets during the 30's and 40's. We are in a very nice park on the South side of town called Countryside RV Park. This is a very clean park with excellent utilities and 65 channel cable TV system.

Amarillo, TX

We rolled in to the Palo Duro RV Park yesterday about 2:00 PM after a 220 mile run from Garden City, KS. We left US 83 in Liberal, KS and headed southwest on US 54 thru OK. Great road and 4 lane most of the way. Then we turned south on US 287 ,also 4 lane, thru Amarillo and on to I27 for the short run down to the campground. Last nite we went to the Big Texan restaurant for steak. What a fun place! This is the home of the free 72 oz. steak dinner, if you can eat it in an hour. Hard to believe, but the current record is 8 min and 52 seconds. Whew!! It was Saturday nite and the place was pretty full but the service was fast and friendly. No takers on the giant steak while we were there though.


This is the "Big Texan" 72 oz steak with the trimmings barely visible on the sides.

Who is that fool in the picture??




Today we want to see Palo Duro Canyon state park. It is billed as the Grand Canyon of Texas and the pictures we have seen show it to be beautiful. Tomorrow we're off to Roswell, NM for a day or two and then on to our destination of Benson, AZ. Seven states and 1400 miles.

On our Way by Kathy

Well we are in Kansas and the wind is whistling down the lane at hurricane force. Really it's not that bad but we have not had this kind of wind at so constant a force. We spent 2 days in McCook Ne. At a nice city park with 50amp only but we were in the shade and down in a little glen so we were protected from most of the wind. We move on to Garden City Ka driving in high winds but we made it here. We are in the nice little park called RJ.RV Park it's a old KOA but it's a little run down. We decided to go to Dodge City and visit the old west. They have preserved the old boot hill area and have built a street with the Long Branch Saloon and stores of all kinds,a school, church, and a home. As I looked at the Kitchen I thought of all the great gadgets we have today and how blessed we are to have the ease of todays things. The wind was again strong and it was hard to drive in the car. I was glad to get back to the rig and get in out of the wind.

We are planning on moving to Amerillo tomorrow if the weather holds calm. I like being back on the road. The different scenery as we go down the road is awesome. We went though the sand hills of Ne I didn't know they even exsisted. What a wonderful country we live in and how diverse it is. Something new around every corner. Well today we need to get a show done so listen in and find out more about our travels. Safe travels, Kathy.

Blown away in Kansas

This is our third day in Garden City, KS. We stayed another day to dodge the 35 mph constant winds here and all the way down to Texas. The gusts top 50 and shake the rig to where it scares Charley. Yesterday we decided to go on and brave the wind and go to Dodge City, about 50 miles east of here. We toured the Boot Hill Museum and found it quite interesting and well worth the $9.00 entrance fee.




Lunch at the Boot Hill Casino was pretty good too. The driving there and back was exhausting as the wind and dust hit us from the side and made driving "interesting". Today we produced issue 128 of the Living the RV Dream podcast detailing our adventures. We may look around in Garden City later and then we must get the rig ready for travel and an early start tomorrow morning. We have about a 235 mile run to a park on the edge of Pala Duro Canyon near Amarillo, TX. We'll spend at least 2 nights there.

Garden City, KS

Missed blogging yesterday so I'll catch up. We spent two nites in McCook, NE at the free city park so Kathy could go to Harlan County to check on some genealogy stuff to prove there is an Irish connection in her family. There is. Today we did 185 miles in constant wind from 15 to 25 with a few higher gusts. This really dropped our mileage. We fueled up where US 83 crosses I70. Cheapest diesel so far at 3.72.9/gal cash price. We also picked up a new Flying J/Pilot fuel card two days ago that saves 3 cents per gallon. So here we are in Garden City at RJ's RV Park, a former KOA. Its a nice enough park although the spaces are a little narrow. Nice to have sewer and water after 2 nites but the cable TV is the best. Tomorrow we will go to Dodge City, KS to tour as well as look around Garden City. We may stay an extra night here as the wind is expected to last 2 more days. Then its on to Amarillo, TX 220 miles down the road.

The best camping is Free camping

We had a pretty easy day today. Only 220 miles from Valentine to McCook, NE. We are in a city park with seven 50A sites and it is FREE camping for up to 3 days. Water and a dump station is available. I am impressed with our route down US 83. The road is 2 lane so far, but in good repair with decent width shoulders. Of course we had the requisite road work but only for about 20 miles. The first half of this day was through the Nebraska Sand Hills which were scenic in our eyes. Not much civilization, but beautiful nonetheless. Then it was 100 miles of corn country with drying feed corn as far as the eye could see. At least there was a little more man made stuff to see. We made a fuel and Walmart stop in North Platte. This is a fairly sizable town at the junction of US 83 and I80. The Walmart was right off US 83 and with lots of large vehicle parking and easy return to US 83. We fueled at Flying J 2 miles East on I 80 and then went back west to US 83.

Valentine, NE

Hello Happy Campers!! We got a late start this morning as we had to air up the Motor home tires. Should have done it when we got the oil changed. We finally left the park at 10:00 AM and hit the road for Valentine, NE. We fueled up at the Flying J in Rapid City but we probably should have waited. Diesel was 25 cents cheaper in Murdo and I should have waited. Someday I'll get some patience. We stopped for lunch at a rest area just west of Murdo and then we headed south down US 83. So far, it has been 2 lanes all the way, but with little traffic and even less road construction. Really pretty country if you like range land. We are stopped at the Fishberry RV Park 5 miles North of Valentine. Nice park with all pull-thru sites mostly level. Full hook-ups with 50A electric for $20 is pretty good. We unhooked the car and went into Valentine for dinner and to scope out a good fuel stop for the morning. We had a great dinner at the Pepper Mill restaurant. We would return if we come thru here again! Today we drove about 220 miles. This is our first driving in the motor home for 6 months, so it was a good run to get our feet wet. Tomorrow is even shorter as we will do about 190 miles to McCook, NE so as to stop and visit Regen, NE to check out some genealogy stuff on Kathy's family. Then its off into Kansas somewhere and then into Amarillo, TX for a few days. I'll try to post each evening if I have Verizon signal.

One more day

Well, Saturday the 1st is here and so are we. We decided to stay on one more day because we aren't in any particular hurry and Kathy wanted to rest a little after her last work day on Thursday. That's the beauty of this lifestyle! Go where you want and when you want. So tomorrow, Sunday, is our day of departure. I want to thank our readers for the comments you have left. I will answer questions if you leave your email address in the question. PJ, there is an Ipad app for the Next Exit but its around $14.95. I'm not sure if it will update each year without additional charge. The last thing I have to do today is to clean our windshield and front side windows and apply RainX to them. That stuff really works! Yesterday, Kathy and I cleaned and arranged all the basement compartments on the curb side. By using plastic tubs of the same size, we saved enough room to empty several overhead cabinets inside the motorhome! After that we will straighten up the inside and move all the clutter from flat surfaces (countertops, etc.) that would slide all over the place when in motion. With that done, all we need to do in the morning is unhook power, water and sewer hoses, pull in the slide and move out to the far side of the campground to air up the tires and hook up the car and then we're off. It sounds like a lot, but we have done it so many times, it will take no more than 10 minutes. We only have about 220 miles to go tomorrow and we will overnite in Valentine, NE. I'll try to blog daily as we travel, but please forgive me if I miss a day or two.